


Something Very Overdue

by DrZevil



Category: Doctor Who
Genre: F/F, F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-08-22
Updated: 2019-11-08
Packaged: 2020-09-23 18:49:30
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 2
Words: 6,405
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20344969
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DrZevil/pseuds/DrZevil
Summary: The Doctor has made many mistakes in her life: leaving Susan, abandoning Jenny, leaving Jack to fend for himself, and then there was River, the love of all her lives. For too long, she has let these people that she loves suffer when it is completely in her power to fix or help in someway, in her own words 'No more'.





	1. Chapter 1

The Doctor let out a forlorn sigh, because she was alone. Not an uncommon site for the old Time Lord, now Time Lady, but ever since she fell through the roof of that train, she had had Yaz, Ryan, and Gram with her every step of the way in this regeneration. But they had lives of their own to get to: Yaz had to go on patrol and the boys were spending family time together with Ryan’s dad.

“I remember doing that.” The Doctor said with a happy reminiscent smile on her face in her new Yorkshire accent, “Susan and I used to go on little excursions like that! That last time is when we got you old girl and then we met Barbra and Ian! You liked Barbra and Ian, didn’t ya girl?”

There was a pleasant thrum that went through the TARDIS and a sense of fond delight entered the Doctors mind. She smiled at the center console, but that was soon wiped away as her mood turned melancholy. She loved the memories of her family (‘Old Fam? Nah, kinda cheapens it somehow, doesn’t it?’), but they were always painful.

She had lost the rest of her blood family on Gallifrey years before she and Susan left. Susan was gone, probably had had a whole tribe of great grandchildren and great-great children for her to spoil rotten… if she ever made good on her promise. Jenny was…probably dead, she had thought so at the time when she had left, but then she got a feeling that maybe she had lived. The Doctor hoped that was what that feeling was.

‘And River…’ The Doctor stopped herself. Even after Darillium and centuries since that fateful meeting at the Library, the Doctor still couldn’t think of her late wife and not be broken hearted. Eyebrows had always been angry, and Bowtie had distracted himself whenever he would think of her, but she’s no longer those men… or any man for that matter.

Before she can fully submerge herself in her sorrow the TARDIS, which had been parked inside the Time Vortex, suddenly launched into motion seemingly of its own accord. “Hey! Where do think you’re goin’?” The Doctor shouts in indignation, but the TARDIS doesn’t respond as it hurtles through time and space.

Letting out a huff, the Doctor goes over to destination read out. Seeing the space time coordinates, The Doctor’s eyes widened, and she looked up at the space time rotor in concern and confusion. “Why are we going there?” she shouted as she tried to take control of her ship, but the ship was unresponsive.

“I don’t want to go there!” The Doctor shouted/whined at the TARDIS, “The people there don’t even want to be there! And they don’t like me! I’m sure that they’re still cross with me!” But her words fell on deaf sound receptors as they flew through space and time until they had landed, followed by three solid knocks.

“I’m not answering that.” The Doctor said, rather petulantly, as she crossed her arms and stuck her nose up in the air in defiance, “And you can’ make m-” She was cut off as the doors opened wide of their own accord, letting in the person who had knocked.

It was an old human looking woman dressed in red and gold hooded robes and with grey hair on her head and a dourer expression on her wrinkled face. The woman looked around the console room until her piercing eyes landed on the Doctor, a solitary eyebrow raising as she did so.

“I see you were foolish enough to die again.” Said Ohila, High Priestess of the Sisterhood of Karn, her tone slightly dry, “Although your sense of style seems to be even worse in this form then the last one.”

“Says the woman in a space nun outfit.” The Doctor grumbled as she glared at the shorter woman, “And for your information, that velvet jacket was on point.”

Ohila rolled her eyes at the Doctor and her attitude, “Why are you here Doctor? I doubt that you are here to act like the uppity child that you are.”

“I do not…” The Doctor started to say in an indignant tone, but trailed off as she figured out why the TARDIS had brought her here, “You clever old thing!” She shouted in joy, much to the shock of Ohila.

“I beg your pardon?” Ohila asked perplexed and slightly offended, thinking the Doctor was talking to her.

“Oh, no, I wasn’t talking to you!” The Doctor said quickly to the old woman, her tone slightly apologetic but a broad and hopeful smile on her face, “But you are clever! Very clever! You and the Sisterhood are the only ones capable of creating the Elixir of Life! A chemical solution that can allow a Time Lord or Lady to choose their next regeneration,” She then paused for dramatic effect, “or restoring a Time Lord’s body after they’ve died but their minds remained.”

Ohila’s response to this was simple and final, “No.”

“Let me explain-” the Doctor tried to say, but Ohila cut her off.

“No.”

“You don’t even know-!”

“No!” This time when the priestess said the monosyllable, she added an extra bit of force behind it and added a death glare to slam her response home. “I do not know why you wish to use the Elixir of Resurrection, and I do not care Doctor.”

Ohila’s glare deepened into something a touch more hateful than any the old time traveler had ever been given, “You have shown me that you have no respect for the balance of life and death through your actions on Gallifrey.” Her eyes softened slightly, but her voice remained hard “Everything and everyone has it’s time and should be allowed to rest.”

“And what if that time was cut short?” The Doctor asked, her voice almost as hard but with an undertone of desperation, “The person I want to bring back sacrificed herself to save not only me, but hundreds of thousands of people. Please Ohila! Let me bring her-”

“Then you should honor her memory and not besmirch it by making that sacrifice mean less by bringing her back.” Ohila cut in without remorse as she turned to leave, “I suggest you leave Doctor and if you try and take the Elixir, we will kill you until you’ve used all of your regenerations.”

Before Ohila can take a step out of the TARDIS, the doors slam closed, the cloister bell sounds, and a small puff of black spoke appears in front of the priestess, producing a black card with red writing on it. Ohila catches the card instinctively as the Doctor walks up behind her to see what it says.

‘Grant this request and any debt your Sisterhood owes me is paid in full.  
-Z’

“Who’s ‘Z’?” The Doctor asked confused. She was quickly going through her mental rolodex of friends, enemies, and the galactic powerhouses that could make a card appear like that in the TARDIS and had a ‘Z’ in their name or title but was coming up short.

“Fine, I will give you the Elixir of Resurrection.” Ohila told her irritably, ignoring the Doctor’s question.

“Really?!” The Doctor asked in glee as she quickly followed the High Priestess, forgetting her question in favor of the thought of seeing her wife again.

“I will need a piece of her.” Ohila continued to say as she pushed open the TADIS’s doors, still perturbed but glad that she and her sisters were finally out of that creature’s debt. “The Elixir requires it to reconstruct her body properly or else her mind will not bond with it.”

“A sample of her DNA, you mean?” The Doctor asked as she swiftly turned around and headed back into the TARDIS, “I’ve got just the thing! I kept one of her-” she started to say, intending to go into her room, but she stopped when she saw not only the intended object, but also River’s dairy resting on the center console, “…hair brushes.”

The Doctor went up to the console and picked the hairbrush and book, taking a moment to look lovingly at them before shifting the look to the space time rotor. “Thank you, sweet girl.” She whispered sincerely to her ship, tears welling in her. She smiled as she felt the same kind of thrum from earlier but with a feeling of love entering her mind.

\----------------------------------

The Doctor and the TARDIS were once again in the time vortex, but this time the Doctor wasn’t sad or forlorn, she was excited. She had considered going to the Library seconds after Sandshoes had left but considering the Role River’s data ghost had played during the Great Intelligence’s attempt to wipe her from all time and space, she decided to do it within the vortex.

“Okay sexy girl, let’s give this a go.” The Doctor muttered as she opened the TARDIS’s sensors up for all kinds of signals and data, hoping that she could find Rivers data ghost. An eternity seemed to pass as the Doctor sifted through the data.

“There!” She shouted in elation as she spotted what looked like the right combination of brain waves and processing power. “That’s my River! Just as gorgeous as a bunch of ones and zeros as she is in the flesh.” She quickly isolated the data and downloaded it into the TARDIS’s memory banks before quickly going over to a metal tub that had the Elixir of Resurrection in it, dragging a thick cable that was attached to the center console with her and connecting it.

“Time to make things right River.” She muttered as she went back to the console and began uploading River’s consciousness to the tub. The Elixir worked much like a flesh avatar or an Auton, except it brought the person’s body back instead of replacing it.

“I really wish the others were here so I could explain the science to them.” She said aloud as she put in the necessary commands to upload River’s mind into the Elixir tub. “It’s really quite fascinating how the Elixir uses the DNA from the hair sample and the psychic imprint from the diary to recreate the-”

The TARDIS made the ‘shring’ sound it tended to use when she was annoyed with the Doctor. “Oi! No need to use language like that!” the Doctor admonished.

She would have said more but there was the sound of liquid churning and a flash of regenerative energy from the tub, causing the Doctor to spin around just in time to see River jolting up into a sitting position as she gasped for breath and went into a coughing fit. “Get in!” Shouted the Doctor in pure joy, throwing her arms up in the air.

This shocked River out of her resurrected stupor to look at the woman that was shouting things. At first, she didn’t know who this woman was, hell she didn’t even know who she was, but soon memories came rushing back: Kovarian, the suit, her parents, regenerating, the TARDIS and the- “Doctor?” She asked the woman who was now looking at her with a mixture of hope and fear on her face and wet eyes.

“Hello Sweetie.” The Doctor said in greeting as she rushed over to her wife, Sonic in hand just to make sure everything was okay and where it should be, rambling as she usually did in this regeneration.

“Looks good, well you always look, but biologically you look good. Actually, you usually look stunning, a real knockout, and flippin 'eck your naked!” She shouted, her face going beet red as she proceeded to take her coat off, “I can give you my coat, that’s the gentlemanly thing to do, or gentlewomanly thing no-” The Doctor was cut off but River placing a finger to her lips a soft smile on her face.

“Finally did your roots, I see my love.” River finally said, her classic mischievousness in voice as she slid her finger off the Doctors lips so her hand could cup the other woman’s cheek, her smile turning fond when the blonde leaned into the gentle touch.

“It was about time; I could feel the Daleks judging me as they shot at me.” The Doctor quipped quietly as she placed her hand over Rivers. “Do you like it?” This time her voice was even quieter and more vulnerable, fearing the answer from the one she loved most.

River didn’t answer in words, she simply pulled the Doctor close to her and kissed her. It started slow and chaste, but that gave to fast and passionate, the Doctor’s fingers threading themselves into River’s unruly, and now slightly slimy, mass of curls while Rivers other hand cupped the Doctor’s other cheek.

Sooner then either would like, the two Time Ladies broke apart for air. “You really hate endings don’t you, Sweetie.” River stated breathlessly as she grinned at her husband-now-wife.

“Only when it’s your ending, love.” The Doctor said just as breathless, before a cocky grin grew on her face. “So, I’ll take that kiss as an approval then?”

“I hate you.” River said through a giggle as happy tears welled in her eyes.

“No, you don’t.” The Doctor replied, her eyes just as water as she leaned in for another kiss, blissfully happy to have her wife back and already planning new adventures to have with her and her fam… and maybe right some other wrongs that were also long overdue.

\----------------------------

In a dead and lifeless forest, a Skeleton strolled with a floating robot head hovering behind him. “Dat was a real nice thing you did fer dem dames’ boss.” Said Mr. SIMMS, record keeper and personal assistant to Dr. Zevil.

“Yes, it was wasn’t it.” Dr. Zevil said distractedly as he looked around the forest floor for something, until finally finding what he was looking for, a forgotten and decomposing corpse . “Unfortunately for the happy reacquainted couple, I’m about to have to do them a disservice.”

“Whys dat boss?” Asked the SIMMS, his holographic face showing confusion.

“Because there must always be balance, you useless bucket of bolts.” Dr. Zevil said disdainfully as he pulled out a small vial of an iridescent gold liquid. “Plus, this story can’t be all happy fuzzy hugs and kisses, that’s just not how I roll.”

“I gets ya, boss!” SIMMS said excitedly, his jagged jack o’lantern grin growing wider and eyes squinting evilly. “So, what’cha gonna do to dem dames’?”

“It’s not what I’m going to do to them, my dear Mr. SIMMS,” Dr. Zevil cackled as he uncorked the vile and poured its contents on the body, his voice having a note of wicked glee in his voice, causing the body to start to glow the same golden color, “but what she’ll do to them. Come along Mr. SIMMS,” the mad doctor said as he turned away from the growing glow of light, “this next part gets rather explosive and I don’t my darling Sonia anywhere near her when she’s done cooking, might give her ideas. I bid you adieu, my dear, happy hunting.”


	2. Chapter 2

AN: Salutations and bienvenue! Chapter two! Whoo (Obnoxious horn noise, you know the one)! Love the reaction to this story guys, but now on with the story!

============

Smack. “Ow!” said the Doctor, rubbing the back of her head where her wife had just hit her. “What was that for?” They were both in bed after…doing what married people do and the Doctor was catching her wife up on what she missed. She had just finished telling how she regenerated from Eyebrows, so her reaction was warranted.

“That was for trying to give up on life, you pudding brain!” River said with an angry glare, using Eyebrows’ favorite insult as she got up, not even bothering with a sheet to cover herself and started to furiously pace around the master bedroom. “I should have told Nardole to kick your ass every five seconds just to make sure that you didn’t do anything stupid!”

“Even Nardole wouldn’t have been able to stop me.” The Doctor told her seriously, trying very hard not to be distracted by the sight of her naked wife. “But the TARDIS knew who would. She brought me to the one person in the universe who I would listen to.”

River stopped and looked at her wife, a thoughtful look on her face before the realization hit her. “The Doctor.” She and her parents had realized that the one person in the universe that the Doctor trusted most was himself. She was, of course, the second person on that list but she didn’t let that get to her head…mostly. “Which one was it? Skinny and sexy, Chinny and sexy, long scarf and sexy, or celery stick and sexy?”

“The Original, you might say…You described all of those versions of me as sexy.” The Doctor pointed out with a silly smile, a light blush coloring her cheeks. ‘I don’t normally blush at this kind of stuff and my biology shouldn’t be like this, there’s no reason for it unless…is my biology sexist?

“Yes, I did.” River said in that sultry way of hers as she walked around the bed to sit on the Doctors side, getting in close to her and looking deep into those now beautiful brown eyes of hers. “I love you, my love, every version of you.”

“Even the one with the recorder and the one with the silly coat?” The Doctor asked, a goofy grin on her face.

“Even them… though if you ever try to us that torture device you call an instrument, I’ll kill you for real this time.” River followed this up with a quick peck on her lips before going into the Doctor's closet to find something suitable to wear.

This was one of the many reasons she loved about River; she could be all murderous rage and anger and threatening to kill you one minute and be all lovey dovey and sultry the next…and still threatening to kill you. She was chaos personified and probably the only woman, dead or alive, that could love the Doctor and be loved back in return.

An angry shriek broke the Doctor out of her musings and made her leap out of bed and run into the closet. “What is it? Is it a spider? Don’t kill it, it could be a high form of sentient life or a mutant made from toxic waste!”

“No but it’s something just as repulsive!” River growled, now dressed in one of her old button ups, brandishing something red at her. “What in the name of sanity is this thing doing in here?” the ‘thing’ in question was the fez that the Kablam man delivered.

“Oh, that…” The Doctor stated a little nervously, trying hard to think of an answer that wouldn’t get her regenerated and knowing full well what her wife thought of her in hats, especially that hat. “I…ordered it a long time ago and haven’t gotten a chance of returning it…which I can’t do because I kinda revealed a revolution being waged at one of their distribution centers and halted all deliveries.”

“I’m throwing it out into the Time Vortex.” River deadpanned as she marched out of the closet, her search for a complete ensemble being forgotten in favor of getting rid of the offensive fez.

“But it still suits me!” The Doctor whined at River’s back, quickly following after her as she tried to cajole the other Time Lady to let her keep the hat, but knowing that it was futile; when her wife set her mind to something, there was no stopping her. ‘That’s another thing I love about my River…well not so much right now, obviously.’

\------------------  
Sheffield, 2019

“So how was it with your Dad?” Yaz asked Ryan as they and Graham waited outside her flat building and in front of the spot the TARDIS liked to park itself.

Ryan shrugged. “S’right I guess. Still a bit awkward, between him and me.”

“It won’t be like that way forever, son.” Graham reassured his grandson, giving him a smile and a pat on the shoulder. “Your Nan would say that he’s tryin’, so you should give him a chance.”

“He’s right.” Yaz said as she rubbed his other arm in a show of solidarity. “He wasn’t a good dad when you were a kid, but it’s good that he’s putting in the effort now.”

“I know and I’ll give him a chance.” Ryan said with a nod of his head. It hadn’t been easy to forgive his dad, a part of him still didn’t forgive him for running out on him as a kid and not coming to his Nan’s funeral, but nearly losing him when that Dalek hijacked his body made him realize that he didn’t want to lose him like he lost his Nan. They were the only family they had, besides Graham of course. Ryan then grimaced, “It’s just super awkward.”

“Yeah, it’s probably gonna be like that awhile.” Yaz said with a grimace of her own.

“The Doc would probably say that the awkwardness is just your psychic energies realigning, or somethin’ just as weird.” Graham said, earning a laugh from the two young people. He then looked at his watch and frowned. “I thought the whole point of having a time machine was that you were never late?”

“Not if the Doctor’s the one flying it.” Yaz said through a chuckle. As much as she admired the Time Lady, she wasn’t blind to her flightiness, no matter what her sister said. ‘I am not ‘making heart eyes at her’ Sonya!’ she had said before she left the house that day.

Almost as if talking about her summoned the time traveler, the familiar groaning of the TARDIS sounded at the same time that it slowly started to materialize. Once it was fully within the space time continuum, the doors opened up enough for a head to pop out, but it wasn’t the Doctor’s.

The head that greeted them was way frizzier, blond hair a shade darker, and slightly older than the one that usually greeted them. “I take it you’re Yaz, Ryan, and Graham?” asked the woman, her voice posh and alluring.

“Yes, but who are you and why are you in the TARDIS?” Asked Yaz, going into cop mode. She didn’t know why, but she didn’t like this woman and the fact that it was her and not the Doctor greeting them bothered her.

“Both of the answers to those questions are very long and too salacious to have in public.” The woman said with a mischievous twinkle in her eyes as she pulled the doors wide open to let them in. “Come in and I can reveal all to you.”

“Is she…flirting with us?” Asked Ryan as they walked into the familiar control room.

“Oi! No flirting with the Companions!” Said the Doctor’s voice from within the TARDIS. Hearing their friends voice put the three human’s minds at ease, but not really alleviating their confusion.

“Normally I’d say possessiveness was unattractive, but you make it work for you, Sweetie.” The still unknown woman yelled back as she strutted to the center console.

“Companions?” asked Ryan confused.

“Sweetie?” Asked Yaz incredulously.

“Possessiveness?” Asked Graham and the other two looked at him as if he were slow. “What? You both took the only relevant questions!” He defended.

“All questions are relevant, Graham! You should know that by now!” The Doctor said as she came in, wheeling a large white board in as she did so. “How was male bonding time?” She asked with a smile on her face as she stopped the board in front of them. “Did you go fishing? I use to love going fishing, but I had to stop because I met several kinds of fish people and I couldn’t really justify the hobby after that, or get sushi for that matter and that’s a shame, I use to really like sushi and fish fingers, especially with custard!

“Awkward, but that can wait.” Ryan said quickly. “Doctor what’s goin on?”

“Who’s she?” Asked Yaz, trying and failing to keep the hostility out of her voice as she hooked a thumb at the mystery woman.

“And what’s with the white board? Don’t you usually use the hologram doodad?” Asked Graham, relatively sure that this was a relevant question.

“In order: new adventure/mission,” She directed this to Ryan, “that’s River,” this was to Yaz, “and a visual aid because a holo projection would be too confusing.” She said, finishing with Ryan.

“I think the nice police officer wants a proper introduction, Sweetie.” Said River in an endearing way as she walked up next to the Time Lady. She turned to the three humans. “My name is Professor River Song, archeologist, felon, private detective, half Scottish, bioengineered psychopath,” the next thing she did only confused them more, she took the Doctor’s hand in hers and interlaced their fingers, “and I’m the Doctor’s wife.”

“Your married?!” Asked all three of the Companions in unison, who were all floored by this revelation.

“She hasn’t mentioned me?” Asked River forcing charm into her voice even as a small amount of irritation slipped out. She slowly looked over at her wife, an aura of menace pouring out of her. “Not one word about me? At all?”

“That can’t be right!” the Doctor chuckled nervously, not even feeling this afraid of her when she was literally trying to kill her. “Of course I’ve mentioned my River!” She gave her friends a pleading look, “Don’t you remember? The incredible and magnificent Professor River Song? I had to of, right? I couldn’t have been that stupid.” At least she hoped not.

“Nope.” Yaz said dryly.

“Nuh-uh.” Said Ryan with a shake of his head.

“I would’ve remembered that if you told me you was married, Doc.” Graham told her, feeling for her in that moment. He knew the look that River was giving her, Grace had given him that look a time or two.

“Well at least you didn’t make them think I was a man.” She said as she let go of the Doctor’s hand to cross her arms over her chest, her look turning into a full-blown glare. “Like you did when you described me to Clara Oswald.”

Ryan perked up at that name. “Now she has definitely told us-”

“Okay! Moving on!” The Doctor said over him as she turned to the white board, stopping him from digging the hole she was in with River even deeper than it probably was. “So, I think it’s time I finally told you a little bit about me. I’ve told you all loads, but not my species or most of my life before I’ve met you, not because I don’t trust you!” She defended quickly as she turned back around to look at them. “I do trust you! It’s just… not easy for me to look back.”

The Doctor slowly wrapped her arms around herself and looked away as memories of her former selves popped into her mind: leaving Susan, losing Adric, the Time War, Rose, the year that never was, Donna, the waters of Mars incident, the Master and Rassilon, Demons Run, Trenzalore, and The Mondasian colony ship. “I’ve been running my entire life.” The Doctor finally said, her voice serious and pained as she walked up to one of the crystalline pillars, caressing it. “That’s how all this started: with me running away. Just me, the TARDIS, and…my granddaughter.”

“You two are Nans?” Ryan asked, too used to seeing women who looked much older than these two with grandkids.

“You two have kids?” Asked Yaz, stunned as she looked at the two women. She wasn’t going to ask how that worked, the male pregnancy onboard the Tsuranga opened up her mind to different species methods of reproduction.

“Not me, dear.” River told them gently, hand subconsciously going to her stomach, a move that Graham noticed. “She means the family she had with her first wife, when she was the original.”

“What do you mean by the ‘original’?” Asked Graham, confused about what the other woman could mean. Then something occurred to him. “Wait, when you were making your sonic, you told Grace and me about being someone else and then being born again.”

“I did.” The Doctor said quietly, before shaking herself and turning back to them, her usual energy restored. “I did say that! You see my people, we have a biological fail safe in our physiology that allows us to heal ourselves if we’re close to death, but we lose the person we were in the process and become someone new.”

“Who’re your people Doctor?” Yaz asked, still not happy (for some reason) but eager to finally find out where her friend came from. “You’ve never actually told us, you just said you were a traveler.”

‘Now or never.’ The Doctor thought to herself before saying “I'm a Time Lord. I'm from the planet Gallifrey in the constellation of Kasterborous at the End of Time.” She then flipped the white board to show the other side of the board that had thirteen pictures on it, “I'm over fifteen hundred years old, I’ve lived thirteen lifetimes and I’m currently on my fourteenth, but I’m the thirteenth Doctor.”

The Doctor then told them the shortest version of her life story: Leaving Gallifrey with Susan and her stolen TARDIS (“Don’t look at me that way Yaz! They weren’t going to let me take her! They took away my license and if you ask the old girl, she’d say she stole me!”), her other companions (“Of course I haven’t always traveled alone Ryan! It just turns out that way… sooner or later.”), her other selves, and meeting River (“See Graham, this diagram would be very confusing with the holo projector.”).

All three of the new companions were digesting all this information. “That… is a lot to process, Doc.” Graham said from his seat on the steps to the central console with Ryan while River was standing by the console behind them and Yaz was leaning against one of the crystalline pillars. 

“If you still don’t fully understand, I have some other visual aids.” The Doctor told them, before an excited grin grew on her face. “Oh! I have some sock puppets that would be-!”

“No!” the four other occupants of the TARDIS shouted vehemently, cutting the Doctor off.

“So…you were a man?” asked Ryan slowly, wrapping his mind around the concept of his friend being able to change so thoroughly. Although that ‘white haired Scotsman’ comment made more sense now.

“Really?” Asked Yaz incredulously, “That’s what you’re focusing on? Our mate just said she’s been traveling all of time and space with other people, had a family, was married twice with kids, has died fourteen times, and you are focused on the thirteen lives that were blokes?”

“How are you not?” Ryan asked, just as incredulous. “I’m not trying to be intolerant, but that’s still a bit of a shock to find that out. It’s like finding out my granddad was a woman!” He suddenly turned to Graham, a look of slight horror on his face. “You weren’t, were you?”

“Of course not!” Graham said vehemently. “Your Nan was a very open-minded lady, but I don’t think she would marry a man that had been a woman.”

“So…are we still best friends?” asked the Doctor nervously. She worried that all this information at once would be too much, but she knew that if River was going to be traveling with them permanently and they were going to fix her wrongs, she couldn’t do as her other selves had done and hide the truth from her friends. That never ended well and people sometimes got killed because of not knowing.

“Don’t be daft!” Yaz said with feeling, putting her hurt, and frankly confusing, feelings to the side for now, as she pushed off the pillar and stepped forward. “Of course, we are!”

“So you have a past,” Graham said as he and Ryan stood up. “who doesn’t?”

“Not gonna lie, your past is mad,” Ryan added, “but you’re still one of the best friends I’ve ever had and wouldn’t want to give this life up for anything.”

“You guys are the best friends I’ve ever had too!” The Doctor said as she came up and pulled them all into a group hug. As the four hugged, the Doctor felt the absence of some one and looked up, seeing her wife hanging back. “Oi! River! Why are you all the way over there?”

“Just letting you all have your touching moment, Sweetie.” River said fondly. A part of her was a little jealous of the little family the Doctor had found for herself after her, her parents, and the Doctor’s other companions were taken from or left her. However, the part that loved her, which was by far the biggest part of her being, was glad that her love had found the strength to move on.

“Listen here, wife of mine!” The Doctor said as she broke from the group hug to march up to her wife, a determined smile on her face. “You might be all cool and sexy, but that doesn’t mean you aren’t a part of this Fam!” she then took her wife’s wrist and pulled her into a new group hug with her friends.

River was stiff for a moment, but she eventually relaxed into the hug and enjoyed the closeness. She didn’t normally do this sort of thing, not even when she was with her parents, she had an image she had to keep up after all, but this new version of her Sweetie had a way of making her do what she wanted. ‘Oh dear…I think she and I’ve switched roles. Now she’s the one that has me wrapped around her finger.’ She thought with a small smirk.

“So,” Ryan asked when the hug broke up, “where are we headed to next?”

“We’re going to see a head about a soldier!” The Doctor exclaimed as she ran to the console and started to rapidly flip switches and push buttons. “I’m going to right some wrongs of mine, and to do that I need information, and the only place in the universe where I can get that information is at the Maldovarium.”

“What’s the Maldovarium?” Yaz asked as she watched the Doctor work, but not missing how River was subtlety following her wife, switching the controls to different places or pressing something the Doctor overlooked. It reminded her of how her parents interacted in the kitchen, the similarities unsetting her to a degree.

“A bar and information hub.” River supplied as she turned a dial in the opposite direction that the Doctor had turned it. Hearing her wife so close to her, the Doctor turned around to look at her suspiciously, but River only smiled and batted her eyelashes sweetly at the other Time Lady, the very picture of innocents.

“Your taking us to a pub?” Graham asked in disbelief. Considering all the amazing places the Doctor had taken them, a pub was a bit of a letdown.

“It’s not just any pub!” The Doctor defended as she resumed her manipulation of the controls. “The Maldovarium is a market settlement in the 52nd century, with a black market along with salons, cafés, and (okay, yes) a bar! It’s the premiere destination to learn all the secrets of the universe! Whenever I wanted to know something that I shouldn’t, I always went to the Maldovarium!”

“We’re going to a space pub in the future? Awesome!” Said Ryan with a pup of his arms.

“Okay, that sounds a whole lot better than a night at the Red Deer.” Commented Graham as he came up to the console with the others as the Doctor neared the big leaver, knowing that when she pulled it that the console was the only place, they could get a grip and not fall over.

“Right?!” The Doctor happily asked as she came to her favorite control on the TARDIS: the takeoff leaver. “If there's anywhere in the galaxy that knows where my daughter is, it’s the Maldovarium!”

As the Doctor pulled the lever, all three of her human companions shouted in bewildered unison one solitary question: “Daughter?!”

\---------------------

Light Years and centuries away from the Doctor and her friends, a ship was in dire need of saving. “This is medical freighter Delmarik requesting aid from any ship in the area! We are under attack by pirates!” said a young human with black hair, his flat American accent full of distress as the ship rocked from another hit from the attacking ship.

“Lost shields!” Yelled a Groske at another one of the consoles as another exploded. They were the only ones on the bridge, the captain having been rushed to one of the infirmaries onboard after sustaining a blow to his head from a fall.

“Then get them back online!” Shouted the young human in a panicked voice. He had thought that an assignment on a medical ship would have been easy, he didn’t think about space pirates with drug habits attacking them. He turned back to the comm system to try again when it crackled with a message.

“Don’t worry boys!” said a famine and cheerful voice, “The good ship Terebek has got you covered!” The next thing they knew, a silver streak flew past the observation port and slammed into the pirate ship, destroying it completely in a huge explosion.

“Other ship kill itself?” asked the Groske confused.

“Of course, I didn’t kill my ship!” said the female voice, this time sounding annoyed. “Terry would demand hazard pay!” suddenly, the holo projector brought up an image of a teenage blonde human girl dressed in a green shirt and black pants and combat boots. “Hi, I’m Jenny. My dad’s a doctor, is he there?”

=================

AN: And Jenny is on the scene! I knew if ever I was going to do a DW story, I had to put in the Doctor's daughter, who has been seriously underused since she showed up with Ten.

That’s all for now, till next time, I bid you adieu!


End file.
